Asia-Pacific High-level Meeting for CSW 62 “Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls”

CSW62 will consider "Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls" as its priority theme, and "Participation in and access of women to the media, and information and communications technologies and their impact on and use as an instrument for the advancement and empowerment of women (agreed conclusions of the forty-seventh session)" as its review theme.To assist the Commission in its deliberations, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP) Regional Bureau for Asia & the Pacific and other members of the UN Regional Coordination Mechanism's Thematic Working Group on Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (TWG-GEEW), will convene an Asia-Pacific High-Level Meeting for CSW62 on its priority theme, at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC) in Bangkok, Thailand on 23 February 2018.

Rural women and girls in Asia and the Pacific continue to face persistent structural barriers that prevent them from enjoying their human rights and achieving their full potential. Adequate standard of living, land rights and land tenure security, food security and nutrition, violence and harmful practices, health care and sexual and reproductive health, quality education, and resilience and preparedness to climate change, disasters and conflicts are among the main cross-cutting challenges faced by rural women and girls in the region. These have been identified as priority areas for action by the UN Secretary-General Report to CSW62.

In the Asia-Pacific region, the ongoing transformation of agro-food systems, changing demographics, the negative impacts of climate change and degradation of ecosystems, increasing demands on land and water resources and threats of natural disasters affect countries and their farmers, forest-dependent communities, small scale fishers, pastoralists, and indigenous peoples, among whom women and girls are particularly affected.

Resources

• Concept note
• Agenda
• Speech by Dr Miwa Kato, Regional Director, UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, at United Nations Conference Centre, Bangkok, Thailand